Becoming a Chef: With Recipes and Reflections from America's Leading Chefs [Paperback]

Andrew Dornenburg (Author), Karen Page (Author), Madeleine Kamman (Foreword)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0471285714 | ISBN-13: 978-0471285717 | Publication Date: May 18, 1995 | Edition: 1

Dornenburg and 60 leading chefs take you on a trip - to first jobs, mentors,successes and setbacks. Includes what you need to know about education in formal cooking schools and apprenticeships- also options for chefs both in and out of the kitchen.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Norman Van Aken began his career as a busboy in a Holiday Inn, Alice Waters was a Montessori teacher before she opened Chez Panisse, Emeril Lagasse began as a dishwasher in a bakery, and Charlie Trotter started in a restaurant called The Ground Round. It is a long way to the top of the culinary charts, and in Becoming a Chef the first thing you learn is that the hours are long and the dues are high.

Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page have created a classic. The flip side of Larousse Gastronomique, this book should be required reading for anybody who has ever considered a career as a professional chef. For those of us who are content with our day jobs, Becoming a Chef is a complete and informative look at how the best in the business got where they are today. Dornenburg and Page interviewed 60 of America's finest chefs to find out what drives them. What are their influences? How did they begin? What do they read? And what advice do they have for someone just starting out? Most of all, the book offers a candid perspective on what it takes to succeed in the top ranks of the business. From a professional standpoint, Becoming a Chef is invaluable; from an amateur's standpoint, it is simply fascinating.

Along with some sound advice and great stories, America's best chefs offer some of their favorite recipes. Andre Soltner reveals his mother's recipe for Potato Pie, and Michel Richard shares a Creme Brulée that was inspired by his first kiss. These are subtle reminders that it takes passion as well as commitment to become a chef. --Mark O. Howerton

From Library Journal

This book should be mandatory reading for anyone considering a restaurant career. Dornenburg and Page show what working in a kitchen is really like-forget those ideas of glamour and celebrity. They begin with a brief history of restaurants and notable chefs, then move on to cooking schools and/or apprenticing, getting a job ("starting at the bottom"), and developing in the field. There's a chapter on opening a restaurant and one each on maintaining your edge and surviving the bad times. The authors interviewed 60 chefs from across the country, and relevant, pithy quotations are interspersed through the text, giving a good overview of the different experiences possible. Recipes from the chefs at first seem superfluous, but in fact they serve to convey the varied styles of many distinctive cooks. Fun to read, informative, and unique, this is an essential purchase for career collections.
Judith Sutton, "Sutton's Place Cuisine," New York
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (May 18, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471285714
• ISBN-13: 978-0471285717
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (42 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #858,478 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars BECOMING A CHEF is a must-read., June 23, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Becoming a Chef: With Recipes and Reflections from America's Leading Chefs (Paperback)

Let's not mince our praise: BECOMING A CHEF is one of the best books ever written about the back-of-the-house side of the restaurant business. Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page interviewed more than 60 top chefs for this entertaining and enlightening look at the culinary profession.

Jeremiah Tower (formerly) of San Francisco's Stars reveals that he originally wanted to be an architect. Todd English of Olives (Boston, etc.) reminisces about watching his grandmother make potato gnocchi. Andre Soltner, the living legend formerly of Lutece in New York City, waxes philosophical about love -- in his estimable opinion, the most important ingredient in any dish. Perhaps Norman Van Aken of Norman's in Coral Gables, Florida, sums it up best: "This is not a profession that you choose. It chooses you."

In addition to life lessons and some 50 recipes from the usual suspects (Alice Waters, Daniel Boulud, Emeril Lagasse, etc.), the book includes a brief history of the culinary profession; a chapter on opening and operating your own restaurant; and listings of culinary organizations, publications, and cooking schools in the U.S. and abroad.

For the uninitiated as well as those who have already found their calling in the kitchen, BECOMING A CHEF is a must-read.

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great book -narrow focus, July 12, 2001

By 

Jeff "atlarge1" (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Becoming a Chef: With Recipes and Reflections from America's Leading Chefs (Paperback)

This book was the AHA! for me that made me decide, yes a culinary career is where I want to go. Upon reading it I realized that there ARE other people out there with the same kind of passion and dedication to making great food, and all the hard work and long hours that go along with it. A real eye-opener and a must-read for anyone considering a culinary career. However...

This is a great book for anyone considering a career as a chef, though some of the advice, while good, may be a bit unrealistic. For example, most people can't just take a year to try working in a restaurant to see if cooking school is really for them. The book covers a number of aspects of becoming a chef, not just what it takes, but the inner motives that one should have to pursue such a demanding career-which must go far beyond any unlikely dreams of glamour, stardom, or high income.

The title does not reflect the somewhat narrow focus of the book, which unfortunately is misleading. There are a lot of different kinds of places to be a chef, not just in a restaurant, but the book focusses really only on restaurant chefs and the restaurant business, and makes little mention of the other kinds of career options chefs and food lovers in general might have-such as catering, being a personal chef, etc. However, I'm looking forward to seeing the same authors' book on food critics. They did have a purpose in focussing on chefs, but I think this book suffers by having narrowed that focus a bit too much. Nonetheless, this is a great book if you're thinking about entering the culinary field, as I am.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Two more reasons to buy this book, November 15, 2000

By 

Christopher Miller (St. Augustine, FL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Becoming a Chef: With Recipes and Reflections from America's Leading Chefs (Paperback)

I agree with all the other posted positive reviews. This book was a revelation, gave my cooking studies aspirations focus, is very thorough, and was an instant personal classic.

I loved this book for a second reason: It opened up the ethos of American cooking to me in the same way that Beck, Bertholle, and Child's Mastering the Art of French cooking did for French cooking. The world of Kamman, Waters, et al.--the exciting cooking of and going on in our own country--was foreign to me until I read Becoming a Chef.

Also, the "Chef's Top 20" list of essential cookbooks is worth the price of the book.